SteveWackowski

Senior Advisor for Alaska Affairs

Senior Advisor for Alaska Affairs

Steve Wackowski is the senior advisor for Alaska Affairs in the Interior Department. In this role, which is based in Anchorage, Wackowski will serve as Secretary Zinke’s Alaska “‘point person.'”

Steve Wackowski has a “background in the oil and gas industry.” He began his DC career on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and later worked as Ted Stevens’ Press Secretary. He returned to Alaska to work on Lisa Murkowski’s 2010 Senate campaign, and then managed Murkowski’s 2016 Senate campaign. In 2013, Wackowski began working for a joint venture between Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation and Olgoonik Oilfield Services, providing “aerial remote sensing services for the oil and gas industry in Alaska.” Wackowski is also a major in the Air Force Reserves.

Special Interests

Olgoonik Oilfield Services (Resource Development on Public Lands)

Wackowski worked for a project to provide aerial remote sensing services for the oil and gas industry. One of the partners of the project was Olgoonik Oilfield Services, an Alaskan company that provides services, equipment and personnel for oil and gas exploration and production.

Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (Resource Development on Public Lands)

Wackowski worked for a project to provide aerial remote sensing services for the oil and gas industry. One of the partners of the project was Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation, which is a subsidiary of the pro-drilling Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.

Until joining Zinke’s Interior Department, Steve Wackowski worked as the operations manager for a joint venture between the Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation and Olgoonik Oilfield Services, formed to “provide aerial remote sensing services for the oil and gas industry.”

Olgoonik Oilfield Services is an Alaskan company that provides “services, equipment and personnel” for oil and gas exploration and production. Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation, which owns “approximately 92,000 acres of surface lands” within ANWR, is a subsidiary of the pro-drilling Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, which sold the rights to “some of the 90,000 acres of land” in ANWR “to Chevron and BP for millions” in 1983.

Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation is a subsidiary of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, “established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Act of 1971,” that owns “approximately 92,000 acres of surface lands” within ANWR. In 1983, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, “which is for drilling,” sold the rights to “some of the 90,000 acres of land” in ANWR “to Chevron and BP for millions of dollars,” meaning “if ANWR opened up, they could move in and start drilling.”

Political Connections

Steve Wackowski has donated at least $2,122 to Republican politicians and the Alaska GOP, including $250 to Lisa Murkowski’s 2016 Senate campaign.

[National Institute for Money in State Politics Search for Steve Wackowski, accessed 06/09/17]

Current Activity

On February 2, 2018, Alaskan oil exploration services and equipment company Olgoonik Oilfield Services received a $16,500 contract from the Interior Department. Wackowski used to work for a “joint venture” between Olgoonik Oilfield Services and Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation.

Before working at Interior, Steve Wackowski worked for a joint venture between Kaktovik Iñupiat Corporation and Olgoonik Oilfield Services, providing “aerial remote sensing services for the oil and gas industry in Alaska.”

The only other federal contract Olgoonik has ever received was a $22,838 contract, later readjusted down to $14,024.95, from the Interior Department’s US Geological Survey for “Support Activities for Oil and Gas Operations.” Olgoonik received this contract on March 06, 2017, before Wackowski worked at Interior.

Financials

According to his 2017 financial disclosure form, Wackowksi’s received compensation exceeding $5,000 in a year from an Anchorage, Alaska LLC called “Arctic Frontiers,” of which Wackowski was the sole proprietor, and from another Anchorage-based LLC called “Fairweather Science LLC.”